Published Literature: Science Communication Research: an Empirical Field Analysis

This first in-depth empirical analysis of the research field in science communication was conducted for the German Federal Ministry of Research. The study provides both an empirical analysis of strengths and weaknesses of research in the field of Science Communication, and a reflection on its future needs and perspectives. 

The study mapped and analysed the content from approximately 3,000 journal papers and used a multi-stage panel study as well as a review of grey literature across four decades. It points towards five 'grand challenges' that science communication research is facing and gives a number of research gaps that at have led to these challenges. These include: 

• Changing information behaviour and attitude formation in the public
• Rapidly changing media systems
• Lack of evaluation of policy impacts
• Communication governance

This Public Understanding of Science online blog-post gives a summary of the main findings

The publication is available (fully open-access) as an e-book and audio-book under Creative Commons licence: [Gerber, A. et al. (2020): Science Communication Research: an Empirical Field Analysis. Edition innovare. ISBN: 978-3-947540-02-0. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4028704.]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License